RE: Coronavirus - How worried should We be ?
it is good to see how the Chinese authorities are handling the situation and taking fast measures to handle the situation and communicating with other countries !
I have got to presume this was sarcasm.
For one thing, the viral outbreak was first observed between the 12th and 19th of December. Even at that early stage, there were already voices of concern about an epidemic due to CNY travel. China did little except arrest anyone who mentioned it, on charges of "publishing or forwarding false information on the internet without verification"., and parade on stage to insist "we know it is not SARS." for weeks afterward, before finally walking this statement back and admitting it was from a first-cousin of the SARS Coronavirus on 9 January. By the time they finally took quarantine measures (which essentially amounted to "seal off the city of Wuhan and let them fend for themselves,"), the virus was already confirmed in at least 7 countries.
Well, there are always two sides to the story. It don’t make sense to me that if they knew at such an early stage that they were dealing with something so serious, that they would not act, and end up with the situation they have today.
If you were there during the SARS outbreak, then I suspect you already see the flaw in that statement (and not to be offensive but if this were not the case, I don't think you would have run back to Sweden). China's primary concern has always been first, last, and always to the exclusion of all other concerns, "make sure nothing embarrasses the Party," which has universally meant "keep all bad news under wraps." Minor details like "preventing thousands of deaths" come third or fourth at best.
This was made evident (as was China's weak response to outbreaks, which has apparently not improved since SARS) not so long ago in the Yrisnia Pestis outbreak of November - December 2019.